Lookie what the UPS man brought me!

Friday afternoon I came home just in time to catch the UPS man.  This is what he brought for me:

I put it on my patio table so you could get an idea of how big the box is!

I was so excited, I could hardly way to rip into the box and see what I ordered. Do you want to see?!

 

YAY! I LOVE that B!

 

These were ordered from woodenletters.net.  Use them! They are SO awesome!

Our names are a little bigger than I want. Not at any fault of the company though. I just picked the wrong size. I am thinking about re-ordering our names in a smaller size, but Lance already said "No Kari, they will be fine."  I might do it anyway though, because it is just going to bother me. What will I do with the big 'Lance' and the big 'Kari' though?

This 'Love' is actually going to be used as a photo prop.

As soon as I got the box opened and saw everything was there I went right on over to Hobby Lobby. I needed paint! I remembered to bring my color swatches I bought from David's Bridal so I could make sure to match the colors up too.  I found my paint and the wood putty I needed, and purchased them. Then I went down to a tool store in the same plaza and got some fine grit sand paper.

I sanded everything, put down some wax paper on my coffee table, and got to painting. I absolutely love all the colors once on the wood. I haven't finished the project completely, I'm waiting for Lance to get home to help me put it all together.

Want a sneak peek of what the wood letters are looking like so far? 

 No crafting project can happen in our house without a fountain coke present. 

Really though. I'm a cokeaholic.

What crafty projects are you working on?

Old Plans vs. New Plans

Since changing our date and all of that, the whole theme (or feel) of our wedding has changed. I never really thought we had a "theme", but now that I think about it, we kind of did! It was a casual, laid back, outdoorsy thing we had going on and it was pretty awesome. It was still kind of fancy but not in a super formal way.  The guys were going to wear suits, stuff wasn't going to be all bedazzled and blingy. It was going to be outside on a bayou! (Again, still makes me sad we can’t do this)

Now with this venue change... it’s a little fancier... I'd like the guys to wear tuxedos, the ceremony will still be outside, but the inside reception won’t be outdoorsy like before. My dress, how I want to decorate, my jewelry, etc. will all be more formal. It will still be slightly laid back, because that’s just how we are. (or well how Lance is, which helps calm me right on down.)

I can’t really use the stuff that I had planned on for the wedding we were going to have in LA, because even our colors have changed (see my previous post), and they just don’t go anymore.  We will more than likely have an “at home reception” so maybe I can use the things I have there.  Or maybe I will just sell everything.  

By having our wedding in Michigan our estimated guest count went from around 125 to somewhere between 230 - 250. Not that this bothers me all that much. I love my family and I love my friends. The more the merrier!  It's going to be one heck of a party and that makes me very excited.

Now that we are having the ceremony outdoors on the grass (opposed to the deck that it would have been on before) I won't be able to do my monogrammed aisle runner like I wanted. I really don't want to trip over it if it gets clumped up on the grass.

The weather could be tricky too. April in Louisiana is absolutely gorgeous. Not all hot and not cold.  September in Michigan, well, it can be unpredictable. Probably warm(ish), but who knows. It could just drop down to 40 for no good reason.

We also won't get to take pictures under the live oaks! BUMMER!! I am sure I can find someplace to get some really pretty pictures, but this was going to be my favorite part of it.  Good news about this, I am just going to plan to have a photographer (probably the wife of someone I work with) meet us at this riverside park that is just gorgeous, and take some pictures of us before we do our at home reception. I mean, I will already be in my dress for that, might as well make good use of it!

All in all, the changes we have to make are not major problems. Some of it seriously makes me a little sad though. Regardless of where we have it, what it looks like, or how much sparkle it has, the fact is - Lance and I will be husband and wife...and THAT my friends, is awesome.

What is your wedding "theme"? Are you going fancy or more casual?

Our Wedding Colors

I never made an “inspiration board”. So while I would love to share one with you, I just don’t have it. I am more of a fly by the seat of my pants type of person. I knew what I wanted my colors to be in my head, so that is where my inspiration board is.  That’s kind of lame I know, but I promise, this is all going to come together and be fabulous.

           

In the months following the second date change, these are the colors I have come up with.

I only have this because I needed to make a wedding newsletter and wanted people to know what our colors are. They look kind of off because I made it from screen shotting dresses off of the David’s Bridal website, cutting out a square, and pasting them together.  How crafty of me. Ha!

Add a little lot of bling to the mix and there you have it folks – our wedding colors.  Our bridesmaids are going to wear the first color- DB’s Plum. My accent color and my Momma’s dress are going to be the second color- DB’s wisteria. The third color is the color that the groomsmen are going to wear- DB’s mercury. (Or whatever they call the color at the Men’s Warehouse) The last color is basically an accent color as well. Light pink. The bridesmaid’s flowers will be a mix of that color and some other pinks. I’m not too fussy about that part.

I suppose I could MAKE an inspiration board… but… it would be more of a… “here are some random pictures inserted in no particular order, of some stuff I like” board.   

Or not a board at all..... maybe I will just post some pictures of what I have going so far. 

pictures from claires.com and koyalwholesale.com

  

koyalwholesale.com and yahoo search image

both from etsy  

target.com and koyalwholesale.com

etsy seller and linentablecloth.com

It's like a list of blinged out silver and purple goodness. I can't wait to put my ideas into action!

What are your colors? Do I have any color twins?

Dress Adventures - Part 3.2 / My Dress!

The last time we talked about my dress shopping, I was torn between two dresses at Pearl’s Place in Metairie.

We put the first dress back on and then put the third one back on. I wanted to make a decision today about the whole dress situation!  I will be honest, up until visiting this store I had pretty much made up my mind to get the Christina Wu dress from Ashley Renee Bridal. But now I couldn't even remember what was so special about it!  I think that that is a definite sign that it wasn't the dress for me.

I stood there staring at myself in the mirror, still in the third dress. LeShawn dimmed the lights so I could get the “feel” for how it would look during the reception. As soon as she did that, I was sold. This was my dress. I felt stunning, even with it being so fitted.

I put my clothes back on and talked over everything with my consultant. The dress was on sale. The alterations were included, and she wasn't going to charge me sales tax. (Score!) The sale ended at the end of the week though, so I had to do something soon or risk paying $600 more!  I told her I wasn't going to be able to have half by the end of that next week, and she said all I needed was $100 to hold the price- they just couldn't ORDER it until half was down. So I did what any other crazy "I need THIS dress" bride does, I told her I had to go home and call my mom.

So technically I left dress-less. I forgot to get the designer and dress name so I ended up going on their website and going through ALL their designers until I found it.

After talking with my mom and sending her pictures of the dress from the designer’s website, she agreed to put money down on it so I could keep it at the sale price!!  MOMMA TO THE RESCUE!! HOORAY!!!  (No seriously, thanks mom!)

Thanks for being so patient!  Here she is!

Maggie Sottero - Jenna!

How did they get her skirt so poofy?!

Here's when I went back to get measured.

I have my hoop skirt on underneat the dress.

I personally think that the dress could be a little poofier... and that my hips could be a little smaller. Fortunately for me, these are both things I can work on!  It should be in in a couple months here and I will get to try on MY dress.  YAY!

What do you think?  Did I do okay?  Who else is a Maggie bride?

Dress Adventures- Part 3.1

The third and final store- Pearl's Place- was also in Metairie. This experience was WAY better than the other places I had visited.

Even though we didn't have an appointment (they don't have appointments on Saturdays), we still got taken care of quickly. Our sales associates name was LeShawn. I put her name out there, because if you are ever in Metairie and you need a wedding dress, you seriously need to go see her. She's so awesome!

She started out by asking me what kind of dress I wanted. She is the first person who actually asked me this. I told her and also added that I really didn't want her to pull any size 8's or 10's and expect me to fit into them. She said "oh no, I wouldn't pull you anything in those sizes." Then she showed us the section that was in my price range and size and pulled about 4 dresses.

This place did not let you take pictures, and I failed to get the names of dresses. (Bad blogger?) So I will just describe these dresses to the best of my abilities.

The first one was one of my favorites. It had a super tiered bottom (kind of like some of the Aire Barcelona ones I showed you) but the top was strapless with rouching. There wasn't really much detail besides that. So they added an overpriced rhinestone sash and put a sparkly edged veil on me. I was like "oooh my!"  It was gorgeous!! I told them to put that one to the side, because it was a definite contender. It was so flirty and fun.

The second dress I couldn't get into, so that was out.

Then there was the third dress, which was kind of similar to the first one. It also had tiers, but there weren't as many. The fabric was thicker, it had a more elegant feel. It was, like the first dress, strapless with rouching.

It had a little bit of a rhinestone detail and was absolutely beautiful. They wanted to add that same rhinestone sash to this one, but I thought it was over kill. So was that sparkle edge veil.  I told Courtney that I felt like I was having an emotional affair on that first dress with this one. I seriously didn't want to take it off.  I was torn. 

That’s where I am going to leave off for today!  I DID choose one of the two from this shop, look for my next post to find out which one!

Did you have a tough time choosing between two dresses?  What helped you make your decision?

Pre Engagement Pictures

We intrrupt the dress posts to bring you this... our "pre-engagement" picutres!

One random week day, we were walking through Walmart. Our one year anniversary was coming up, and out of the blue Lance says to me: "We should get our picture taken together."  I was a little surprised because I feel like it is not normally the guy who brings these things up. I definitely wasn't opposed to it, so I told him I would look into it.

I knew I didn't want to go to Sears or JC Penny and have the traditional posey ones taken, so I started looking into photographers who work down in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Everything was SO expensive, and we just didn't have a lot of money to throw down on pictures at this point.

That's when I decided to look at craigslist. There were a lot of options for people just starting out, or people looking to build their portfolio, and then I saw one that said something like: "$75 one hour engagement shoot in the french quarter."  When I went in a read the post it was basically a photographer that was down from Chicago for a conference, and she had some spare time so she was offering this deal. Included were about 30 photos, rights released.  It sounded like a good deal to me, especially compared to the other prices I saw. Plus, her website portfolio was pretty awesome!

Enough talk, let's get to the pictures!  There's quite a few!

This first one she said "Kari, your boob is covering Louisiana." Which is why I'm laughing so hard.

We got it right in the second one.  Lance always looks so mischevious.

I really liked this one except all I can see is my roll hanging over my pants.

One of my favorites from the day. / Here he is always making me laugh.

  

He is just so handsome!

This Lady. She just comes and plops down next to us. Kind of creepy, yet kind of funny.

That's New Orleans for you. 

  

Last, but not least, is my all time favorite picture of us.

Juuuust lovely.

 Well, talk about a Lance and Kari overlaod.

I mentioned this was BEFORE our one year anniversary. Which means Lance hadn't proposed yet. At the end of our session he asked Sarah (the photographer) "So, would you be willing to Travel down here for a wedding?"  See what I mean about he was always mentioning it!

She did say yes she would travel, and she was actually going to be our photographer when we first started planning. Things were so up in the air with everything though, that we kind of lost touch. By the time I emailed her again, she had decided to go back to school to get her masters, and wouldn't be able to do our wedding. I was pretty sad, but excited for her that she was continuing her education!

Did any of you bees get your pictures taken before being engaged?  Who brought it up first?

Dress Adventures - Part Two

After the too small dress disaster of the first appointment we went and had lunch – which I find kind of ironic.

Around 12:30 we decided to head across the causeway into Metairie. Our next appointment was at a bridal store called bustles and bows.  I went inside and checked in for the appointment. They told me to go ahead and look through the racks. Any dress I liked, I should turn the hook part on the hanger the opposite way. Then they would go behind me and collect them and put them aside for me.

I was so excited when I started looking. They had corset size 14's, and regular dresses size 16's. Things were looking up! We go through and probably find 8 or 9 dresses, we get to the room for me to try them on, and they had put ALL of them in the little room. I had like a  4 x 4 space to change. I could hardly see the floor! I figured okay, let’s do this. I asked the woman who showed me to my room if she was going to be right outside the door so when I needed to get laced up I could just call her in. She said "well one of us will be round."  Okay…? Good then, I guess. 

I know it doesn’t look that bad... but the bottoms are the poofy part!!

The first one I tried to get on wasn’t working out.  The next one was a really pretty corset dress. The only problem is, they had re-laced it when they put it back on the hanger, and tight too! So I had to un-lace the whole thing, and those strings are no joke. They are like 4 feet long!

Then I had to put it over my head. Ugh. I don't really talk a whole lot about it, but I have back/shoulder/neck problems, so hoisting a wedding dress up over my head is not the most fun thing in the world.  I kept hitting the chandelier that was in the room too. That didn’t help my frustration.

Finally I was in and I had the lady come in to lace me up.  I could hardly walk in this dress. It was so tight and just didn’t look right on me at all.

I cannot believe I am posting this.

Um... how about no.

Back into the room I go. The lady was nice enough to LOOSEN the laces. Not undo them, just loosen them, so I got to spend time getting them undone by myself in the room.

The next dress that I wanted to try on, a corset style, was also still laced.  So this time instead of pulling all the laces out, I loosened it and tried to put it over my head... again hitting the stupid chandelier. 

After getting my head caught in the damn laces (yes, it is okay to laugh) I took it back off my head, and undid the laces even more.  Up it goes again to put it over my head... and there's the lovely low hanging chandelier in my way once again... well I can’t get it to shimmy down right. So I take it back off.

At this point I am so irritated with the laces and the chandelier and my arm and shoulder are starting to hurt... I just say heck with it and just put my regular clothes back on.

As I am opening the door I can see that Courney has this "oooh what dress did she put on next" look going on, and it goes like blank as soon as I walk out in my clothes. "hrm.. I don’t like that one" she said. What a card.

I told her that I was ready to go. She (and the lady that worked there) looked surprised. The woman- I can't remember if I even got her name said "Are you sure?"  Oh yes lady, I am very sure. Then she said "Is something wrong, is there anything we can do to help?" 

I explain to her that It’s hard to get into dresses with a bum shoulder and arm, and that I keep hitting the chandelier, and that it’s very hard to get a dress on when the corset is left laced up and I am shoved in a tiny room with a whole bunch of dresses and I’m just ready to go. 

I'm pretty sure I said it in all one breath. I did try and be as nice as I could about it. I just wanted to go.   On top of all that the dresses were like... dirty? It was weird. So we got out of there.

One more store to go. The store that had like 50-75 designers listed on their website. I was kind of irritated at this point and wasn’t sure if I even wanted to keep trying on dresses. The store was just in the next plaza over though, so we went to see what they had to offer.

Dress Adventures - Part One

After a couple months of being engaged, I decided to go dress shopping again. Courtney came with me again as well. We decided to go to three shops in one day.  I will split the posts up so you are bombarded with so much information all at once.
    

We started at 10am at a place in Mandeville, LA called Southern Bridal.  It was a smaller store, but seemed to have a good selection of dresses. They had me start going through the racks and see if there was anything that I liked, then they would pull those dresses for me.  About 5 dresses in I realized that almost ALL of their sample sizes were 10's or 8's.

Um.... okay. If you know me... or at least if you have seen some of the other pictures of me... I am nowhere near a size 10.  I'll just throw this out there now... I am a street size 16. So... at the very best... I would MAYBE be able to squeeze into a CORSET size 12 dress. If I put it over my head... and wiggle a lot to get into to it correctly. Otherwise I need to stick with my regular size or bigger for zip up dresses, and I can do a 14 for corset dresses.

Needless to say, my selection of dresses were very slim at this store.  I took a couple of 10's with me... that were corset...  because they looked a bit bigger and I thought maybe there was a possibility of me squeezing into it. (wishful thinking). After two of the smaller dresses, I handed her about 4 of the dresses I picked to try on and said  "here, these aren't going to work, please don't bring anymore size 8's or 10's.”

I did get into 2 dresses. A fitted one, and a more ballgown style one. These were okay dresses. Both very pretty in their own way, but neither one of them really felt right. Here are some pictures...

**note: I was going to edit these so my face wasn't in them.. cause it looks bad... but for the sake of showing that I'm not perfect, like a lot of other brides out there... I'm posting as-is. (double chin pics and all.. ugh.)**

The ever-popular boob shot. Or at least that’s what I am calling it cause its the first thing I notice. I'm going to single out this picture because see that belt in the middle? Why do bridal salons try and upsell EVERYTHING in their store. Is the belt necessary?  Um, no.  Is it pretty? Well, yeah... it's sparkly... what's not to love about it?  Do you want to know how much they sell sparkles on a ribbon for?  About $200 dollars. HA!  No thanks, I'm good. Or maybe I will find one for half that on ETSY, or make it myself!

These next picture are of the more fitted dress. This was one of Courtney's favorites. She did say that the sparkly ballgown was more "Me" though. Which as many of my good friends would tell you, is pretty true. Sorry for the awkward angle!

Those are definitely not the best pictures up there. I like to talk while she is taking pictures, so my face is always doing something funny. This dress I felt didn't have enough too it. I didn't care for the flowers too much, and it seriously needed a petticoat underneath it. Is it just me, or do some of the pictures draw attention to my stomach? I don't really care for that either. It might have been the angle.

So that's it for the first store. Both dresses were nice, but not really THE dress. Plus they were both more than I wanted to pay for a "meh" dress. They did include alterations, which is nice, but still not enough to make me want to get either one of the dreses. The simple fact that I couldn't try on anymore dresses there because of the whole sample size thing kind of slimmed down their chances of me being interested in buying from them too. Oh well.  On to the next one!

Change in Date = Change in wedding party (?!)

Due to us having to change the date (and state) of the wedding, we found out that 3 people in our wedding party can't participate anymore. It's a definite bummer, but also not something I can do anything about.  We lost one groomsman, and both of our flower girls.

It sucks because the groomsman we lost is one of Lance's good friends, and now we have to try and find someone to stand in where he would have been. Out of the two other choices that we have, one doesn't like wedding ceremonies, and the other Lance hasn't seen in ages. 

I was talking to someone over the weekend about it (my grandma I think) and I told her that we could just have Lance’s best man escort Kristine on one arm and Laura on the other.  She said worst case scenario I could just have my brother Zach stand in. Which really isn't even a "worst" case, because he's my BFF and all. He just seems more suited for a Junior Groomsman or something, he's only 12.

The coolest kid you will ever meet.

See! I told you!

As far as the flower girls go… One is the daughter of the groomsman that can’t make it, so obviously she can’t be there either. It didn’t bother me so much because I still had my little (second) cousin, Miss A.  About a month and a half ago, Miss A’s mom (my cousin Courtney) told me that they wouldn’t be able to make the trip either.

This was like a huge blow because Courtney has been the one who is most excited about the whole wedding with me.  Since Lance is gone so much she was my go-to person for ideas and help with things. Well besides my mom, but my mom is all the way up in Michigan! I might have cried a little. Don’t tell anyone though.

So, I decided my sister’s baby- I’ll call her little Buddha- would just be my “flower baby” and Kristine can carry her down the aisle. I don’t NEED a flower girl to toss petals.  It was just another thing I need to roll with, opposed to be mad that things aren’t going how I originally planned.

The reason I call her little buddha.  Those Cheeks! They kill me.

I might be biased, but I think she's the prettiest baby in the world.

I decided I DID want some small child to walk before me though. Enter the cutest little cousin in the worrrrlllddd: Elijah.  We originally weren’t going to have a ring bearer, but seeing how both our flower girls were out, I wanted to have one. He’s my cousin Erin’s son. So cute and he's totally going to ham it up in a little tux.

He's so tiny for his age! But so cute!

What a goofball! 

I hope my cousin doesn't get mad for me putting this one out there!

     Has your wedding party changed throughout your wedding planning?